Diabetes mellitus, often referred to as diabetes, is a chronic condition in which a person has elevated blood glucose levels that result from defects in the body's ability to produce and/or use insulin. There are three main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes usually strikes children and young adults, and may be autoimmune, genetic, and/or environmental. Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90-95% of diabetes cases and is linked to obesity and physical inactivity. Gestational diabetes is a form of glucose intolerance diagnosed during pregnancy and usually resolves spontaneously after delivery.
In 2009, according to the World Health Organization, at least 220 million people worldwide suffer from diabetes. In 2005, an estimated 1.1 million people died from diabetes. Its incidence is increasing rapidly, and it is estimated that between 2005 and 2030, the number of deaths from diabetes will double. In the United States, nearly 24 million Americans have diabetes with an estimated 25 percent of seniors age 60 and older being affected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention forecast that 1 in 3 Americans born after 2000 will develop diabetes during their lifetime. The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse estimates that diabetes costs $132 billion in the United States alone every year. Without treatment, diabetes can lead to severe complications such as heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, amputations, and death related to pneumonia and flu.
Management of diabetes is complex as the level of blood glucose entering the bloodstream is dynamic. The variation of insulin that controls the transport of glucose out of the bloodstream also complicates diabetes management. Blood glucose levels are sensitive to diet and exercise, but also can be affected by sleep, stress, smoking, travel, illness, menses, and other psychological and lifestyle factors unique to individual patients. The dynamic nature of blood glucose and insulin, and all other factors affecting blood glucose, often require a person with diabetes to understand ongoing patterns and forecast blood glucose levels (or at least understand the actions that raise or lower glucose in the body). Therefore, therapy in the form of insulin or oral medications, or both, can be timed to maintain blood glucose levels in an appropriate range.
Management of diabetes is often highly intrusive because of the need to consistently obtain reliable diagnostic information, follow prescribed therapy, and manage lifestyle on a daily basis. Daily diagnostic information, such as blood glucose, is typically obtained from a capillary blood sample with a lancing device and is then measured with a handheld blood glucose meter. Interstitial glucose levels may be obtained from a continuous glucose sensor worn on the body. Prescribed therapies may include insulin, oral medications, or both. Insulin can be delivered with a syringe, an insulin pen, an ambulatory infusion pump, or a combination of such devices. With insulin therapy, determining the amount of insulin to be injected can require forecasting meal composition of carbohydrates, fat and proteins along with effects of exercise or other physiologic states. The management of lifestyle factors such as body weight, diet, and exercise can significantly influence the type and effectiveness of a therapy.
Handheld diabetes management devices are commonly used to manage diabetes care of patients. In some instances, these types of devices may be configured to provide insulin therapy recommendations. There is a need to provide even more accurate insulin recommendations to the user based on various user inputs that take into account current activities and a current health of the user, and which is also highly customizable by the user to thus enhance the accuracy, convenience and efficiency of the device in generating a recommended bolus or a suggested carbohydrate amount for the user. Moreover, during treatment more knowledgeable patients may wish to modify or override treatment recommendations. Thus, there is a need for a more effective means for a patient to modify treatment recommendations.
The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.